On the advice of our hotel owner, we waited to depart for Ephesus until 3pm. He said that the site is very crowded earlier in the day with cruise ship excursions – good tip since there were still lots of people around when we visited. We had the taxi drop us at the upper gate so we had a downhill walk through the site. We did not purchase the audio tour since I had a guidebook, but it would have been worthwhile.
Per DK Eyewitness Travel Guidebook: originally a Greek city founded in 1000 BC, the city ruins standing on the site was founded by Alexander the Great in 4 BC and most surviving structures date from this Roman period.
Picture-heavy post ahead!
The Odeon (meeting hall) built AD 150.
The Odeon
We were fascinated by the reconstruction of the arches throughout the site.
Temple of Hadrian
Library of Celsus
Street Paved with Marble Block
Theatre
After we exited site, we caught a dolmus back to Selcuk. I’ll probably write more about dolmus’ in a future post, but these were everywhere and cheap transportation.
We had two big items on our must see list for this trip – Aya Sofia and Ephesus. Both were well worth the time, expense and effort. Astounding to imagine we walked the same places as Paul the Apostle. Very much a dream come true.